INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
India said it struck nine "terrorist infrastructure" sites, some of them linked to an attack by militants that killed 25 Hindu tourists
and one local in Indian Kashmir last month
Pakistan said at least 31 of its civilians had been killed and 46 wounded, a military spokesperson said, and that India "had ignited
an inferno in the region"
This included deaths from the strikes and border shelling
Islamabad pledged to respond "at a time, place and manner of its choosing to avenge the loss of innocent Pakistani lives and blatant
violation of its sovereignty", emphatically rejecting Indian allegations it had terrorist camps on its territory
"For the blatant mistake that India made last night, it will now have to pay the price," Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said
in a televised address on state broadcaster PTV to the nation
"Perhaps they thought that we would retreat, but they forgot that...this is a nation of brave people."
Pakistan's Defence Minister
Khawaja Muhammad Asif told broadcaster Geo News that Islamabad would only strike Indian military targets and not civilians, in retaliation
The Indian strikes included Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province, for the first time since the last full-scale war between the
old enemies more than half a century ago
This article first appeared/also appeared in Tehran Times
